Wizard of Oz

The Grandmas came to watch Owen in the Wizard of Oz put on by his team of after-schoolers.  I love my Grandma's hands.  I want to get a multi-generational hand shot of hers, my Mom's, mine and Chloe's soon.  But for now, this will do.

The play did not start on time.  It did not start anywhere close to on time.  So Chloe had mucho time to play around beforehand.  I wasn't fast enough to catch her dangling from the counter with my camera.  She has always been my little dangle. :)

Chloe pulled a seat up to the front for a good view of the actors.  She cuddled with her friend Micah when he joined her in this premium seat.

Owen made me smile as he was peeking around the corner, curious about who was in the crowd of spectators.

Here is the Good Witch (in red on the left) telling the Munchkins and Dorothy that all was good and right in the world since the Wicked Witch of the East found herself under a house.  Not sure what was up with Owen and his hands in front of him like a chipmunk, but he kept them dangling up there during his whole Munchkin performance.

The Wizard of Oz soundtrack played in the CD player and the kids sang along with the songs.  It was cute seeing which lyrics they knew and which ones they just hummed through.

I don't recall Munchkins have such pronounced freckles, do you?  I think the kids just wanted to have face paint on their cheeks. 

And eyebrows!  Look at the eyebrows on my boy!

Next role, Owen played the Gatekeeper to Oz.  He snuck a little glance our way to make sure we were watching him.

I was really impressed at how well he delivered his lines.  Owen said them with feeling and had them totally memorized.  Some of the kids sounded like they were just reading the lines out of a book or had them fed to them a phrase at a time by Dorothy.  But Owen had no problems remembering them and said them like he was in the middle of a normal conversation.  Go Owen!

Ever since I took him to see a Christmas Carol last December at the Alliance Theatre downtown, he has been interested in acting.  I'm glad he got the chance through school to try it out.  He never asked for help at home in memorizing his lines and didn't talk at all about the parts he was playing.

Last he played one of the Witch's guards and marched around with his stake in perfect rhythm with the music.  The top of his stake kept falling off, but Owen didn't let it slow him down at all.

I don't remember those creepy flying monkeys fighting the guards, but that's what looks like is happening here.  Owen was originally supposed to be a flying monkey, but he traded that part for the speaking role of the Gatekeeper.

Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead!

Owen did such a fabulous job in all three of his parts.  He was so proud of himself.

As well he should have been!

Field Day

During the last week of school, each grade has their own Field Day.  They head out to the soccer fields on the side of the school and move from one activity to another when the bullhorn sounds.  The sixth graders ran each activity and instructed the kids what to do.  It was fun seeing the older kids take charge of the younger ones in fun and games!

Here is Owen walking in front of the school with his class.  Ok.  Running.  The boy is always running.

He was being silly while listening to instructions before this running relay.

Ready!  

Set!  

Go!

He's so fast.  I think he was the first one over and then first one back.

The next activity was the balloon pop.  Grab a balloon.  Run across the field.  Sit and bounce and jump on your balloon until it pops.  Run back and tag the next person.

This was Owen's favorite activity.  He had to get his feet on top of the balloon to make it pop because his bottom just wasn't cutting it.

Success!

The boy thought he didn't need his shoes anymore.

Todd and I couldn't stay for the whole event.  We both had to get back to work for more conference calls.  I was surprised we even got eye contact from Owen as we were shouting to him we needed to leave.  That boy was so excited about Field Day.  He barely knew we were there.

Playing in the Garden

This morning was absolutely beautiful.  The sun was rising slowly and it wasn't too hot.  There was still dew drops on some of the flowers.  Every flower looks so different through my macro lens!  All of these flowers are around our house in the front, back and side yards.  I LOVE them!

Look at not only the spots, but the little hairs INSIDE these flowers!

Dew on a bud

I LOVE my echinacea/cone flowers in the front.  They bloom for several weeks. 

But it wasn't until I took these pics and was able to crop down in size for a close zoom that I saw the pollen on all the little, um, thingies.

See the pollen now?  They almost look like something from deep in the sea or space missiles.  Such a cool view.

And even closer still.

Another little bud.

Here is my sweet Henry boy.  Meowing away at the crack in the gate for me to let him come out of the backyard.  Not a chance, my boy!

My sweet, sweet boy.

New blueberries!  Now we can pick a handful every day as they ripen.  The kids absolutely LOVE eating our fresh blueberries!

Dew on a leaf.

Weeds with cobwebs or spider strings.

Weed bud.

Love the sunlight shining through the leaf.

Here we can see the ladybug a little better. :) Such dainty little legs she has.

I'm still perplexed by the gooey-ness at the center of these little yellow flowers that were not even as big as a grape.  Please don't ask me what they are.  I'm a poor gardener with no memory and no tags in the soil to display a name.  I just know they're pretty.

A Little Cleaning

This morning we were all supposed to drive downtown to Atlantic Station and participate in a two mile walk for Autism with friends who have an autistic son.  But Owen had not been on his best behavior the night before with his Dad and this morning they were at each others' throats.  I thought it would be better for the two to get a little separation, so I stayed home and put Owen to work.

Maggie has not been doing so well going up and down the stairs.  Going down, it is becoming more common that one paw will crumple under and she loses her footing.  And going up the stairs, she hops like a bunny.  Once every one to two weeks, she skips eating her morning meal.  This morning, we woke to find she had peed in her crate (which she has never done in the seven years she has lived with us).  Also in the seven years she has been with us, that crate has never been cleaned...you can't imagine the amount of Maggie hair that had accumulated inside it!

Lucky Owen, he got to clean out Maggie's crate.  He wasn't thrilled at the start of the process and probably thought he was going to be touching the pee with his hands.  But the more he squirted with the hose, the more fun he had.  And the more I encouraged him and complimented his cleaning abilities and how much better the crate was looking, the more he got into it and would point out to me "See Mommy? All the dirt is gone in THAT crack!"

Owen took pride in cleaning out Maggie's crate and talked about how nice and clean it would be for her to sleep in it again.

Do you like his choice of footwear?

Owen did a great job rinsing out the crate after he finished washing the inside.  I think he felt pretty good about himself for helping out with something that needed to be done and that I would normally do on my own.

He was in a much better mood by the time Todd and Chloe came home.  I have noticed a change in my boy since this morning when he cleaned out Maggie's crate and later in the day helped me clean out all four cat boxes.  He isn't necessarily any more helpful around the house, but Owen is definitely more thoughtful.  He has been commenting back to us after we talk about things we have done around the house or yard with "Wow, that must have been a lot of work!" or "I bet that took you a long time."  

I like this change in him and have told him as much.  Seeing him grow as a person to realize there is so much that goes on outside of his world.  He is forming an understanding of what goes into maintaining our house and family.  But not just an understanding, an appreciation.  He is growing up.  Sometimes faster than I would like, but I am loving watching the boy he is becoming.

Another Birthday Celebration!

My friend Tabitha came over for dinner with us and brought her son Ben.  I grilled barbecue ribs for dinner and made a special fruit and veggie chocolate cake for dessert to be gobbled up with the rest of the Italian Creme cake from the night before.

As is typical when there is birthday cake on the table and singing involved, Chloe is right there to help blow out the candles!

She makes sure they are ALL blown out!

Ben is such a cutie patootie and totally posed for my camera with his chocolate cake!

Do you think Chloe enjoyed her cake? ;)